In a triumphant celebration of birds and the marvelous migratory journeys that some embark on every year in Spring, this year’s Global Big Day (GBD) again brought bird enthusiasts of all ages together to observe and document the extraordinary diversity of birds. In this blog post, we dive straight into the official stats, standings, and standout moments from our GBD Teams Competition.
Every year, the BirdsCaribbean GBD Teams Competition pits island and multinational teams against each other to see which team can spot the most species overall and the most West Indian birds on Global Big Day! Team members went all out to record birds because every eBird checklist powers research—tracking habitat use, revealing global population trends, and ensuring that conservation efforts are directed where they’re needed most. Teams were also rewarded with cherished sightings of lifers, nesting birds, favorite birds, and of course—bragging rights!
Beyond the thrill of the chase, this friendly rivalry carried a profound purpose. Our amazing community helped us raise over $48 000 for Caribbean wildlife students and professionals to attend the upcoming BirdsCaribbean 25th International Conference, 23-27 July 2026, in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Down in the Caribbean
A staggering 8,023 bird species were recorded by eBirders worldwide. In just 24 hours, across 203 countries, 197,640 checklists were logged.
In the West Indies, Big Day birders saw 595 West Indian species, thanks to the amazing efforts of 1,203 eBird observers submitting over 1, 018 checklists. This was the largest jump in number of checklists submitted in the past five years! There were more birds sighted, and more passionate, concerned, and awesome humans watching them in 2026 compared to previous years (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Global Big Day 2022-2026 comparisons showing changes in total number of eBird Observers in the West Indies, total species seen, and total number of eBird checklists submitted.
Overall, our teams did an incredible job of recruiting more birders this year, expanding our community of citizen scientists across the region! While every single team brought amazing energy, a special shout-out must go to Simon’s TCI Royal Terns—for getting Turks and Caicos Islands (again!) into eBird’s top 10 countries with an increase in eBirders from 2025—this year they were 5th in the world! Incredible! The Cuban Birding Team (formerly the FFMat team), the Warbling Warriors (Puerto Rico), and the President’s Perch (multinational) also managed to double their team members for 2026.
This year we were also thrilled to welcome more national (island) teams to the competition! We thank the phenomenal team leaders and members of the following teams for joining us and giving the “OG teams” a run for their checklists: Tireless Seekers (Dominican Republic), Wetland Watchers (BVI), and The Hummingbirds (Trinidad and Tobago).
The ultimate bird-off of 2026
The BirdsCaribbean Global Big Day competition is the region’s ultimate birding showdown. From local parks and gardens to dense forests and coastal wetlands, teams push their limits to log every bird in sight. It’s a high-energy challenge fueled by national pride and love of birds. And this year the competition was fierce!
Teams were up before the sun, like the Bajan Birders and Friends, who kicked things off at 6:06 AM by sharing a lovely photo from Barbados in the team leaders’ group chat. This year’s GBD was also used to pass the torch to the next generation of bird and nature enthusiasts. The One Love Jamaican Birders, Imperial Seekers, and Cuban Birding Team all included students in their Big Day adventures. They were treated to unforgettable experiences from learning how to build bird feeders in Jamaica, to trekking through Dominica’s Syndicate Nature Trail, and venturing into Cuban wetlands to spot birds and record their songs.
As the day progressed, the competition and the temperature both heated up. Some team leaders—eh hem, looking at you, La Gwada Birding Team and Piping Pawis—wisely retired to breezy hammocks (and honestly, we totally get it, it was sooo hot!). Others pushed right through the swelter. The Gavilán Guardians and Warbling Warriors kept at it, deploying members across Puerto Rico to log species in almost every habitat type. Over in Cuba, fuel shortages couldn’t stop the hustle; one dedicated Cuban Birding Team member logged an incredible 70 km on a bicycle, while others relied on electric scooters.
The passion extended far beyond the islands too, with the Badass Bobwhites joining from Maine, and members of the Far Flung Flock of Friends logging sightings from Canada. We’ll share more of these incredible moments in an upcoming photo contest blog.
Amidst all the high-energy hustling, there was also a deeply moving tribute in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Simon’s TCI Royal Terns took to the field to continue a beautiful GBD tradition and honor the memory of Simon Busuttil following his untimely passing earlier this year. Simon’s passion for conservation and his efforts to inspire a love of birds and nature in TCI were legendary. The team, led by Dodly Prosper and joined on the ground by BirdsCaribbean Executive Director Dr. Lisa Sorenson, celebrated Simon’s legacy in the best way possible—by being out birding together and celebrating the birds he loved so much.
Hip-hip hooray to all of our incredible teams for going absolutely all out this year!
President’s Perch remained perched at the top with an impressive 671 species recorded. In second place, we have the Flying Pintails with 436 species, and for the first time coming in third, and bumping the Globe-trotting Todies out of the way, is the Gundlach Team, tallying 402 species. It just goes to show that the winning strategy for GBD is teamwork!
Figure 2: Global Big Day results for our BirdsCaribbean Teams. The numbers in red show which teams had the highest for each category.
And now, leading the way with the most West Indian species recorded once again is the Piping Pawis’ with 267 species. The winning champs also more than doubled their checklists from 44 in 2025 to 93 this year! In Cuba, the Gundlach Team recorded 170 species with the Cuban Birding Team following closely behind with 164 species, and in Puerto Rico the Warbling Warriors recorded an amazing 145 species.
The most commonly reported birds for 2026 were: Gray Kingbird, Northern Mockingbird, Common Ground Dove, Mourning Dove, and our BirdsCaribbean flagship bird, the Bananaquit! The most abundant birds recorded were: Laughing Gull (2993), American Flamingo (2702), Gray Kingbird (2411), Greater Antillean Grackle (2351), Western Cattle-Egret (2169).
We are extremely grateful to all teams for your weeks of prep, commitment through scorching hot weather and unexpected mishaps in the field, sharp eyes, and unwavering enthusiasm. Year after year, your contributions continue to elevate the profile of Caribbean birds and reinforce the importance of collaboration in conservation efforts. The 28 team trip reports shared with us are linked at the end of this blog.
Exceeding expectations
To understand the magnitude of this year’s team achievements, we looked at the numbers behind the birds. The expected species baseline was calculated from the total number of species observed during May, on each island, over the last 10 years. Shout out to Jeff Gerbracht of the eBird team for crunching the data to determine the number of species you can spot in any territory in May and revealing more about our teams’ amazing counts. A new team holds the title of Highest % of Species Seen Caribbean champions!
Congratulations to BirdersSKN (St. Kitts and Nevis SKN) who captured the title by spotting a jaw-dropping 78% of expected SKN birds! Hot on their trail was the ever-outstanding Piping Pawis, putting up an impressive showing with 77% of Trinidad and Tobago’s May species and last year’s reigning champ Statia’s Golden Warblers (St. Eustatius) who recorded 70% of their expected species.
Figure 3: Percent of ‘Expected’ Species seen for our BirdsCaribbean Island Teams.
Celebrating our solo and small squads
In the overall species count, large multinational teams like ‘President’s Perch’ led the way. However, when looking at the number of species recorded per team member, our smaller teams put in the work too. The Hummingbirds, a solo effort by just one participant (reminiscent of our one-person ‘BVI Birders’ team in 2025), recorded an incredible 48 species, in Trinidad, on their own. Tireless Seekers, with five team members in the Dominican Republic, followed with 22 species per observer, while the two members of Team Soualiga in Sint Maarten averaged 18.
Figure 4: The average number of species seen per person for our Global Big Day teams.
In search of local legends
Teams such as Bajan Birders & Friends, Cayman Birding, Piping Pawis, Warbling Warriors, La Gwada Birder Team and Wadadli Warblers successfully found all their endemic birds on Big Day.
Congratulations to all for their outstanding efforts!
Figure 5: Percent of endemics seen (by proportion) on Global Big Day, 2026.
Within the Caribbean, some birders went the extra mile to find the region’s endemic birds. So we want to give a special mention to the following birders who had 20 or more West Indies endemics on their GBD checklist on May 9th:
Hector Andujar – 45
Jorge Brocca – 40
José Alberto Pérez Hechavarría – 32
Dayron Breto – 30
Ricel Polan Hernandez – 29
Nicolás Díaz Pérez – 28
Aaron Wuori – 27
Brendan Burns – 27
Diego Bisbal – 27
Rodolfo Castro Alvarez – 26
Abel Luis Simeón – 26
Eric Torres-Rivera – 26
Amarilys Lebron – 25
Juan G. Ruaño – 25
Lenier Sori Abreu – 25
Yusneyda Alarcón Jorge – 25
Julio Salgado – 24
Ricardo Sánchez – 24
Nils Navarro – 24
Edward Hernandez – 24
Freddy Camara – 24
Manuel López Salcedo – 24
Brayan Espinal – 23
Alex David – 23
Serguei López Perez – 23
Denier Ramon Figueredo Rio – 23
Alejandro Espinosa – 21
Karlos Ross – 21
Yuzaima Ortiz – 20
ALAS INC – 20
Biggest Big Day eBirders
There are teams…and then there are the amazing individual birders.
This year we had some seriously monumental individual efforts. Topping the top team birders list was Rodolfo Castro Alvarez, who was birding in Cuba and recorded 124 species for the Gundlach Team!
Our top birders from the Caribbean and across the globe, respectively, on Big Day were:
Our top ten birders with the most species in the West Indies were:
Rodolfo Castro Alvarez – Gundlach Team – 124
Nicolás Díaz Pérez – Gundlach Team – 115
Nigel Lallsingh – Piping Pawis – 113
Ricardo Sánchez – Warbling Warriors – 108
Julio Salgado – Warbling Warriors – 108
Brendan Burns – Gavilán Guardians – 102
Xavier Ragbir – Piping Pawis – 101
Aaron Wuori – Gavilán Guardians – 100
Diego Bisbal – Gavilán Guardians – 100
Ricel Polan Hernandez – Gundlach Team – 99
Eric Torres-Rivera – Warbling Warriors – 99
Our top five birders overall on Big Day were:
Gabriel Y. Soto-Rivera – Warbling Warriors – 143
Rodolfo Castro Alvarez – Gundlach Team – 124
Jeff Gerbracht – Flying Pintails – 121
Ken Rosenberg – Flying Pintails – 119
Eduardo Iñigo Elias – Flying Pintails – 117
Birding boss, we want YOU to lead a team for GBD 2027
Our ultimate goal is to have a team representing every island in the Caribbean. We know we have the best birds and birders who always bring BIG energy, dedication, and pride to conserving birds. Bermuda, Montserrat, St. Martin, Martinique, St. Lucia, Bonaire, Aruba and Curacao—we’re looking at you.
If you would like to lead a team on your island for GBD 2027 please get in touch with us by emailing: lisa.sorenson@birdscaribbean.org and christel.mohammed@birdscaribbean.org.
It’s not too soon to start plotting for #GlobalBigDayBirdsCarib 2027 domination!
Empowering conservation leaders
This year, BirdsCaribbean GBD teams raised over $48,000 to provide travel scholarships for outstanding Caribbean nationals to attend our 25th International Conference in Trinidad and Tobago. This remarkable effort was truly the work of our entire BirdsCaribbean community and we are deeply grateful to everyone who donated, birded, and helped spread the word. Your support is empowering us to stand strong for birds and our partners across the Caribbean.
If you haven’t contributed, there’s still time to make a difference. Every donation helps us continue building local capacity, protecting birds and habitats, and sparking a lifelong love of nature.
Support us here: https://givebutter.com/BCGBD2026
Beyond the Big Day
Global Big Day may be behind us, but the birding fun doesn’t stop there! The Caribbean Waterbird Census runs all year long, so there’s always a chance to grab your binoculars and contribute to science. This fall, get ready for the Global Shorebird Count (September) and October Big Day (October). These programs offer more great reasons to get outside, connect with fellow bird lovers, and make your sightings count.
2026 BirdsCaribbean Global Big Day Teams
List of teams and links to trip report pages on eBird:
Badass Bobwhites (multinational)
Far Flung Flock of Friends (multinational)
Flying Pintails (multinational)
Globe-Trotting Todies (multinational)
LGBT (La Gwada Birder Team)
President’s Perch (multinational)